


Fireplace Observations

by lothkitten



Category: Howls Moving Castle (movie)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Yuletide, challenge:Yuletide 2008
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-29 01:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/314220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lothkitten/pseuds/lothkitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Calcifer, fireplace demon of endless work and crankiness, reflects on events during, and after, the movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fireplace Observations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [symphoniac](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=symphoniac).



Calcifer often thought, as much as fire demons chained to fireplaces in movable castles made from magic do think, that no one who lived there was who or what they appeared. He was, or at least had been, once, the great Meteroran - eternally powerful in the heavens, shooting past all the complacent stars that didn't seek out adventure and travel. But now everyone knew him as Calcifer, fireplace demon of endless work and crankiness.

Everyone thought Howl was a fierce wizard who ate the hearts of young girls and changed into a terrible creature of wing and darkness that rode the wind in the secret places of the sky. But in truth he was a little boy, locked into a time and place far behind him, missing his heart and all the emotions of adulthood he should have had.

Sophie looked, to those who didn't have the touch of magic, like a grizzled crone, hardly able to stand up sometimes without the assistance of others. She was grouchy and foul-tempered and had a work ethic that was rather scary, but Calcifer could see that she was truly a beautiful and gentle young woman, shy, quiet, artistic and kind, who longed to explore the wide world that existed outside her hat shop.

Most of the time, Markl was just Markl when at home, but when he left the safety of the castle made himself look like a tiny wizened dwarf, old enough to gather respect and authority, and hiding the fact that he was also just a boy, younger than he should be, but mature beyond his years.

It was all a bit of a puzzle to Calcifer. In the sky everything had been so much less complicated. It was only when he fell to earth that things shone with so many layers of meaning and misunderstanding that he really thought he'd never understand it all... which was, perhaps, part of the reason for the crankiness... but then who wouldn't be cranky if they were stuck with the burden he was!

~~~

Granny Sophie drove Calcifer crazy. Half the time he wanted her gone with all the passion of his fire and Howl's heart. The rest of the time he just tried to keep from making her mad and risking her not feeding him the wood he needed. He never knew, with Granny Sophie, if her threats of denying him fuel were empty or truly something he should worry about, and most days he'd rather just go on burning quietly than deal with the consequences of finding out she really meant it.

He had rather enjoyed the dirt and grime of their pre-Granny existence. Back then no one had ever bothered his carefully collected pile of soot, or endangered his life by scooping him up bodily and throwing him into a bucket. That little trick of hers almost caused him to have... what did humans call it... ah, yes, a heart-attack! But now everything was tidy and neat and he had to work so much more, always heating water so Granny could wash the floor, or making him give heat to her seemingly constant cooking. He begged Howl to stop her, but if anything Howl seemed to encourage it.

Calcifer wondered frequently, after Howl had given Granny a strange look, or passed over some bit of fussiness, how often he could see the Other-Sophie. She was pretty. She had large, soft eyes and a smile that needed laughter to brighten it. She also needed lots of sunshine and less time spent in front of a workbench, bent over her sewing.

The trouble with keeping Howl's heart for him was that Calcifer never quite knew which thoughts and which feelings were ones he would have had on his own. He didn't have his own heart, just Howl's, but he thought he might like this Other-Sophie even without the borrowed heart. He thought it would be very hard not to like her, at least a little. Not that he let her know that. Markl liked her enough for both of them, and if she ever figured out his clues and took back the secret buried beneath his flames, Howl would, too. Besides, she might look like Other-Sophie sometimes, but she acted like Granny more than enough of the time to keep him annoyed. How dare she bait Calcifer! She should tremble before the might of a frightening fire demon, not scold him. But then, what could you expect from a crazy old woman like her?

Howl was a different case entirely. When Howl took flight, dashing into the night air and soaring as Calcifer himself once had, he worried. Bit by bit, feather by feather, the humanity in Howl faded. And the further away from the boy he had been in the field of flowers where Calcifer had landed the less likely it seemed that his heart would have a place to go back to inside of his empty chest. Sometimes he thought that the tenderness with which he treated both Granny and Other-Sophie and Markl's dependence on him were the only things anchoring him to the daytime and keeping him from taking flight forever.

Howl had never listened to Calcifer, so it was unsurprising that he still didn't, but if he didn't listen to the one who kept his heart for him, who would he listen to? Some day Howl might wake up and the last memory of what it was like to have love for others would be gone, and if that happened, well, maybe it was better that he transform and never return, for all their sakes.

~~~

From the day he drew his bargain with Howl until the day their bargain ended and Sophie set them both free, all Calcifer dreamed about, as much as he did dream, was the freedom to soar through all the sky that existed. He fully planned to never look back, to embrace his former life of endless roving through the heavens and enjoy every moment of being once again Meteroran.

As much as he would never admit it, after a few precious seconds of dizzying upwards flight Calcifer began to miss having a heart beating away inside of him, and after a few seconds more, a few heartbeats, even, he realised he wasn't longing for a heart, but the people he had cared for with Howl's heart. All of the universe was open to him, but all he could think about was turning around and hurrying back to the little mismatched group that was his family. And so he did. It was a lot easier to give up his freedom, knowing how useful he would be, and how loved. Perhaps he'd even give up being cranky when Sophie (not Granny or Other now, but True) ordered him about... once every other month or two.

  


**Author's Note:**

> When I offered to write HMC for Yuletide this year I really rather hoped I would get to write Calcifer-fic. How can you not love a snarky fireplace demon? I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and the several re-viewings of the movie I just "had" to do, for research, you see.


End file.
